Response to Allen on Plains and Eastern Clean LineI am responding to the letter by Dr. Bob Allen regarding the Plains and Eastern Clean Line electrical transmission line. Will any of Dr. Allen’s property be affected by these lines? Is that why it is easy for him to say how little affect this will have on Arkansas? Only 8,000 acres he said. Has he looked at the route maps? There are people’s homes within those routes. Only a 200-foot-wide right-of-way, he said. That is comparable to another in...

A toothpick in a lumber yardAccording to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report, my hometown of Conway is the fastest-growing big city in our state. Of course you realize that “big” is a relative term. Our city grew at a rate of 8.3 percent from 2010-13, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. Our Chamber of Commerce president told me the population is now around 65,000. It was something more than 30,000 when we moved to this area in 1984. Local officials attrib...

No transmission lineThe Arkansans that I have spoken to do not want Plains and Eastern Overhead High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission Towers running across their property nor on their neighbors. Bob Allen stated the 200-foot-wide right-of-way easements have a relatively small footprint because they are direct current. It’s only 8,000 acres of actual land taken out of service across Arkansas, and much of that is grazing and hay fields, which are essentia...

Obama spreads the blame around for ISIS rise“No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.” — Alexander Pope President Obama is known for wanting to “spread the wealth around,” but he has now gone a step further. He is spreading blame around for his failure to notice the rapid rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. On “60 Minutes” last Sunday night, the president, who tends to use the personal pronoun ...

Transmission LineAllow me to begin by expressing my respect for Dr. Allen. He and I agree on many issues. Unfortunately, the proposed Plains & Eastern HVDC transmission line is not one of them. He’s correct when he says this fight is about the future. It is not, however, only about the future of carbon emissions in our country, but also about the future of property rights: whether it is appropriate for the federal government to partner with private, for-profit...

Random thoughtsRandom thoughts on the passing scene: What a non-judgmental society amounts to is that common decency is optional -- which means that decency is likely to become less common. The biggest issue in this fall’s election is whether the Obama administration will end when Barack Obama leaves the White House or whether it will continue on, by appointing federal judges with lifetime appointments who share his contempt for the Constitution. Whether suc...

Everyone’s an extra, even in CongressI’m not the good guy. Neither are you. And neither are Mark Pryor nor Tom Cotton. I bring that up because we’re in the middle of a campaign season where television ads, and many news providers, treat what should be a statewide job interview, instead like a TV show. Americans are fed a steady diet of fiction. Movies, books and TV shows often feature three elements: a protagonist who is the hero, an antagonist who is the villain, and extras. Exc...

No quick fix for Arkansas teachersHOT SPRINGS — Low pay and high insurance premiums are such big problems within the Arkansas public school system that, even given a chance to make a bold promise during a heated political campaign, the state’s leading candidates for governor couldn’t do so before a teachers’ group last week. Republican Asa Hutchinson and Democrat Mike Ross stood for a time as sounding boards at a meeting of the Arkansas Public School Resource Center met in Hot...

Two proposed amendments aren’t neededAmong the ballot issues that we will face in the Nov. 4 general election are three constitutional amendments referred from the General Assembly’s regular session of 2013. That’s the maximum number allowed per session, which is probably one of the best restrictions of all in our 1874 Constitution. In this column I’ll review the first two, which will be on the ballot as Issue No. 1 and Issue No. 2. Those are fairly simple; Issue No. 3 is quite c...

Great night for TV historyOn Sunday night, a special moment occured in television history that millions waited years to take place. I would put it right up there with the Apollo 11 moon landing — that’s the caliber of “wow” I’m talking about. For the first time, the Griffins from the Fox hit show “Family Guy” visit “The Simpsons” in Springfield. Bart Simpson and Stewie Griffin. Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin. Marge Simpson and Lois Griffin. Lisa Simpson and Meg Griffi...

The Second Punic WarThis is the second part of a series on the Punic Wars. For part one, see the Sept. 21 edition of The Courier. Imagine you’re a Roman. For the most part, you’ve never been outside Italy. If you’re in the navy, you’ve seen much of the Mediterranean, but not much else. You probably grew up in a small village or city that was absorbed into the Roman Empire sometime during your lifetime or your parent’s lifetime. You feel safe. The Roman army, by n...

Words and politicsWhenever the political campaigns burst upon us, social-studies education generally suffers another setback. In education, the truly good teachers tend to emphasize reason, objectivity and exact definitions in aiding students in their pursuit of truth and learning. In contrast, it appears politicians discard reason, objectivity and exact definition in their pursuit of office. Oftentimes it seems they are not concerned with telling the truth but...

Decide alcohol sales at the pollsThe issue of alcohol sales in Arkansas has been highly debated dating back to the days when we were still a territory. And this election day, Arkansas voters will be asked to weigh in again on this debate. Issue 4 is a citizen-led initiative which will appear on the November ballot. It is titled “The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment” and would amend the Arkansas Constitution by declaring the manufacture, sale, distribution and transportat...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Fueling economic enginesLITTLE ROCK — In Arkansas, economic development manifests itself in many ways. In the past 10 days, we’ve seen a constant stream of announcements that will bring good jobs and new opportunities to our state. Each of these also illustrates approaches we use in powering the economic engines that generate success. Earlier this month, we broke ground on a large expansion for Dassault Falcon in Little Rock. While creating jobs, Dassault has a long-...

About the proposed power linePlains and Eastern Clean Line has proposed and has planned the construction of a 700-mile high voltage direct current power line stretching from the Oklahoma Panhandle to Memphis, Tenn. The 600-kilovolt line will pass through Pope County and have the capacity to move 3.5 gigawatts of power, equivalent to the output of five or six coal-fired power plants. Similar projects are in progress to our north. The Grain Belt Express Line will pass throu...

‘Forty Chances’ — a fantastic bookMost people in America know the name Warren Buffett, because he is one of the richest people in the world. The last time I checked, he was listed third by Forbes Magazine with a fortune of $65 billion. What many people may not know is that he and his late wife, Susan, reared a terrific family that consisted of Howard, Susie and Peter. While reading a fantastic book titled “Forty Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World” written by his first son...

Use mercenaries to fight ISIS?On his Fox News show Monday night, Bill O’Reilly suggested using mercenaries to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) instead of U.S. ground forces, which President Obama has repeatedly vowed not to deploy. The use of mercenaries is as old as warfare itself. Alexander the Great used them. King George III hired German mercenaries to fight for the British in the American Revolution. Today mercenaries go by other names, like “contractor.” The president ...

Power of positive campaigningWith just under six weeks to the Nov. 4 Election Day, the pressure is on. With a Democratic sitting president with a low 44 percent approval rating, many Republican races across the nation are being run by tying the Democratic candidate to the president. In many cases, this might indeed create distaste for the Democratic candidate by the voters and lead to a Republican victory. But, with no clear path forward, who is to say that the voters won...

Asa vs. Ross: different, but not reallyThe race for U.S. Senate features two candidates of completely different ideologies, approaches, backgrounds and temperaments. If you believe that Sen. Mark Pryor is right, then you almost have to believe that Rep. Tom Cotton is wrong. The race for governor between former Rep. Asa Hutchinson and former Rep. Mike Ross? Not so much. State government, as opposed to D.C. politics, tends to force both parties to the center anyway, and that’s defini...

Who wants war?Some pundits are saying that President Obama has been floundering in his response to the ISIS crisis because public opinion polls show most Americans don’t want another war. In all my 84 years, I cannot recall a time when most Americans wanted war. That is something we should be proud of. But wars are not always optional. Even World War II -- which some have called “the good war” -- was not something that most Americans wanted. But the Japanes...